School security won't be easy, senators told

Harrisburg hearing highlights difficulties of protecting children

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania state senators who launched a review Wednesday on what the state can do to improve school safety in the wake of December's elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn., will have a complicated task on their hands.

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By CHRISTINA TATU

poconorecord.com

By CHRISTINA TATU

Posted Feb. 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By CHRISTINA TATU

Posted Feb. 14, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania state senators who launched a review Wednesday on what the state can do to improve school safety in the wake of December's elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn., will have a complicated task on their hands.

Senators on the education and emergency-preparedness committees were told there is no one-size-fits-all solution for Pennsylvania's 500 school districts, and that administrators often have more pressing day-to-day safety concerns than preparing for the unlikely appearance of a heavily armed and deranged intruder bent on killing dozens of children.

Besides, districts disagree about whether it is wise to arm school security guards, and training school personnel to deal with armed intruders will be expensive and time-consuming.

In any case, some things can't be stopped, even when security procedures are in place and teachers react effectively.

"Up in Newtown, they did everything right," said Education Secretary Ron Tomalis. "But there's evil in this world, and evil once in a while touches our children."

Pocono representatives were among those who testified: Mile Silsby, superintendent of the Wallenpaupack Area School District, and Pike County Sheriff Phil Bueki attended the hearing, chaired by Lebanon County Sen. Mike Folmer, R-48, and Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, who represents part of Monroe County and all of Pike.

"You never think it can happen in your backyard," said Silsby when asked by Chester County Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-19, why it had taken school officials so long to "wake up" to the issue of safety in schools.

"We need to now know it can happen in rural Pennsylvania, urban Pennsylvania, or anywhere," Silsby said.

But the issue of how to best protect students is not a straightforward one, and steps to safety can vary by school district, officials said.

"There is no one size fits all. "» We need to be able to provide flexibility at the local level for school districts to do what they think is best," Tomalis said.

Some of the things that can be improved across the state include: communication between school districts and local law enforcement, and the implementation of regular emergency response drills and standardized emergency training for administrators and teachers, officials said.

School resource officers should not only provide security, but also training for students and staff, Bueki said.

"It's very important that the school resource officer is not just a gun walking down the hallway," he said. "It's imperative that the officer teach anti-bullying and prevention," he said.

The state also needs to provide better training for school resource officers.

"It's kind of sad that I need to send my officers to New Jersey for school resource officer training," Bueki said.

The state and school districts should focus their resources on planning and regular training so emergency responders, teachers and administrators know just what to do in an active shooter situation, said Glenn Cannon, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

"We have signs up in our offices that say, 'Hope is not a plan and failure is not an option.' "» We stress over and over again, the beginning starts with a plan — a living, dynamic document, not something that sits on a shelf," Cannon said.

The state police have been training all their officers in active shooter response since 2006, said State Police Commissioner Col. Frank Noonan. In addition, all offers now carry shotguns or rifles, he said.

"The common thread that goes through this is mental health," Noonan said when asked by Folmer whether there were any warning signs that were overlooked during the nation's most recent school shootings.

The issue is, it is very difficult to determine who is truly at risk. "These people are generally less violent than the rest of the population, but when they do become violent, they are not rational. They really act out," Noonan said.

That's why the timeliness of local law enforcement to responding to such violent attacks is so important.

More and more municipalities are disbanding their local law enforcement and relying on state police.

That's of particular concern to Noonan, because it can take police a while to respond, especially in rural parts of the state. Still, Noonan said he would be "very nervous" about arming school staffers.

"I'd much rather they hire armed guards. You can't go one day a year and have that be adequate training" he said, adding that troopers undergo six months of training before they are given firearms.

In the meantime, a team of troopers have assessed the security of 250 school buildings, and another 240 schools are on a waiting list.

"This is not a simple, easy kind of thing, where we just put armed guards in the schools," Dinniman said. "It's the teachers, students and community. "» It's not just a school problem, it's a community problem."